California dreamin’? Re-create Napa Valley tastes at home
Some of America’s best restaurants dot the rocky hills of California’s Napa Valley. From the unrivaled culinary bastion the French Laundry to celebrated kitchens tucked away on sprawling vineyard estates, the region’s eateries are known for marrying Old World recipes and techniques with California’s broad array of ingredients to form one of the country’s most distinctive dining regions.
Sounds delicious — but it’s unlikely many of us will be traveling there during the COVID-19 outbreak. Fortunately, the virus can’t keep us out of those wine-country kitchens in spirit.
The Napa Valley American Viticultural Area is famous for a Mediterranean climate and geology perfect for growing some of the world’s best grapes. That
Mediterranean flair is extended to many restaurant menus across the region, with heavy influences from France, Italy, Spain and other countries.
Our first taste of that comes from the famed restaurant the French Laundry, which has held three Michelin stars since 2006 under the leadership of chef Thomas Keller.
While the French Laundry is known for elaborate and complicated dishes showcasing California’s wines and produce, the restaurant’s gazpacho soup can be mastered by any avid home
cook. The recipe, which was included in the restaurant’s celebrated 1999 cookbook, makes a bright chilled soup perfect for Houston’s sweaty summer days.
That soup pairs perfectly with a scallop ceviche that’s presented as a showy platter of hors d’oeuvres from the restaurant Solbar at the famed resort Solage Calistoga, known for providing guests with a complimentary Mercedes-Benz to explore wine country, among other perks. In this recipe, tortilla chips are individually dressed with the ceviche and garnished with cilantro for a taste that’s both elegant and familiar to many palates across Texas.
Heavier fare comes in the form of wine-braised short ribs. It’s a dish found on many menus at wineries with restaurants throughout Napa Valley. Our version comes from the wellknown Joseph Phelps Vineyards, which bottles celebrated highend wines.
Wine is the star in an unusual pasta dish from celebrity chef Michael Chiarello’s Napa restaurant Bottega.
Chiarello shared the technique for absorbing an entire bottle of red wine into thin spaghettini in a 2010 cookbook celebrating many of Bottega’s recipes. The pasta comes out a striking purple, contrasted with bright-green rapini sautéed with garlic and fiery Calabrian chile paste. It’s a memorable balance of bitter greens and mildly acidic pasta.
No trip to Napa would be complete without a stop at the Model Bakery, which has kept visitors and residents alike loaded with carbs for nine decades. The bakery’s signature English muffins smeared with butter and jam have started the day for countless wine-country tourists, and owner Karen Mitchell shared the recipe in a 2013 cookbook.
Though the beverage of choice throughout Napa Valley is obviously wine, the region has given rise to several celebrated cocktail bars as well.
The Cucumber Collins at Goose & Gander has become one of the best known of the drinks shaken and stirred at those establishments, with a brilliant purple courtesy of cucumber slices pickled in a blueberry brine. It’s a great reminder that there’s far more to Napa’s food-and-beverage scene than grownup grape juice.